In years past few games between these two rivals have disappointed on or off the field.

“Right now the early projections are (that) this is gonna be as big or larger than in 2011, which was billed as ‘The Game of the Century,’” said Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission CEO Susan West.

West said the Alabama-LSU game is naturally one of, if not the largest, weekends for the city in terms of people.

“Maybe 250,000 to 260,000 people we're expecting in our city. To give you some perspective, we only have a population of 100,000," West said.

And as this community continues to recover from the April 2011 tornado that destroyed 12 percent of the college town, it appears they're returning bigger and better than ever.

"Certainly football fabric, but we think we have so much more to offer – and more than just seven weekends of a year – and that's what we hope people, when they come for a football game it's a chance to showcase our city, so people will come back,” West said.